COVID-19: What you need to know about the coronavirus pandemic on 17 February

Confirmed cases of COVID-19 have passed 418 million globally, according to Johns Hopkins University. The number of confirmed deaths has now passed 5.85 million. More than 10.42 billion vaccination doses have been administered globally, according to Our World in Data.

Hong Kong SAR's coronavirus battle intensified on Thursday as authorities reported new cases had multiplied by 60 times so far this month. Hospitals are overwhelmed with some patients being treated on beds in the open air.

New COVID-19 infections have continued to decline across the Americas region. They were down by 31% in the last week but deaths rose by 5.6%, the Pan American Health Organization said on Wednesday. Half of the region's 34,000 deaths were reported in the United States.

Top US infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci said on Wednesday it is time for the United States to start inching back towards normality, despite remaining risks from COVID-19. Fauci said US states face tough choices in balancing the need to protect citizens and the growing fatigue with the pandemic.

Germany will ease COVID-19 restrictions as a wave of infections from the Omicron coronavirus variant seems to have passed its peak, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Wednesday, but he warned that the pandemic was not over yet.

Switzerland has lifted almost all its coronavirus pandemic restrictions as fears wane that a spike in infections fuelled by the Omicron variant would overwhelm the healthcare system.

A drop in COVID-19 testing rates is likely contributing to a decline in reported cases even as deaths are rising, the World Health Organization's technical lead on COVID-19 Maria Van Kerkhove said on Wednesday. The WHO earlier this week urged governments to improve vaccination rates and rapid testing.

Germany's BioNTech has developed a vaccine factory made from shipping containers that it plans to ship to Africa as assembly kits to ease what the World Health Organization has described as huge disparities in global COVID-19 vaccine access.

The factory prototype will be instrumental in helping the biotech firm deliver on a pledge made last year to Rwanda, South Africa, Senegal and the African Union to secure mRNA vaccine production on the continent, where inoculation rates are far behind other parts of the world.

Work on the first mRNA manufacturing facility in the African Union is due to begin in mid-2022 and the first container module is expected to arrive on the continent in the second half of the year, BioNTech said in a statement.

The factory, housed in two groups of six 40-foot-containers, should kick off vaccine production about 12 months after the delivery of the assembly kit.

BioNTech on Wednesday presented a prototype of one six-container module to the presidents of Senegal, Ghana and Rwanda, and other dignitaries including the WHO's director general and the German development minister, at its main vaccine production site in Marburg, Germany.

Efforts to strengthen global health security in a future health crisis will only succeed if the role of the World Health Organization is also enhanced, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Thursday.

Speaking via a video link at a G20 meeting of finance leaders in the Indonesian capital, Tedros was responding to proposals to establish a separate global health fund tasked with delivering emergency funds, vaccines and other medical needs.

"It's clear that at the centre of this architecture, the world needs a strong and sustainably financed WHO ... with its unique mandate, unique technical expertise and unique global legitimacy," Tedros told a panel discussion at the meeting.

"Any efforts to enhance the governance, systems and financing of global health security can only succeed if they also enhance WHO's role," he said.